Marc Abrams

Marc Abrams is a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, New York, and is co-chair of the Business Reorganization and Restructuring department. Chambers USA (2012) and Chambers Global (2011) rank him among the leading individuals specializing in bankruptcy/restructuring law in the United States. He has been instrumental on behalf of debtors, acquirers, bondholders and DIP lenders in some of the largest bankruptcy cases in recent history. Mr. Abrams has chaired the Committee on Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Marc is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy as well as serving on its board of regents, and a member of the International Insolvency Institute. Named among a selected few as “2009 Dealmaker of the Year” by The American Lawyer for his work in the Delphi Corporation restructuring, he also was named among the 500 Leading Lawyers in America in the fifth annual Lawdragon 500 guide. He received the 2011 Professor Lawrence P. King Award in recognition of his achievements in the field of bankruptcy law as well as his leadership in philanthropy. In addition, Marc serves as a contributing editor for Colliers on Bankruptcy.

He was among the honorees at the 2012 IFLR Americas Awards recognized in the category of “Restructuring Deal of the Year” for his lead role in the cross-border (Canada / U.S.) restructuring of Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Marc’s international experience includes issues and matters involving the insolvency laws of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bermuda, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, and the UK, among other nations.

Education

Widener University School of Law, JD

Villanova University, BA

Experience

Wilkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, partner

Accreditations

Licensed to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit; U.S. Court of Appeals, 3rd Circuit; U.S. District Court, District of Delaware; U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York; and U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York

Associations

Delaware Bar Association, member

New York Bar Association, member

Pennsylvania Bar Association, member

Matthew S. Barr

Matt Barr is a partner in the Business Finance & Restructuring Department at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. He has extensive experience representing debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, bondholders, ad hoc groups, private equity funds, acquirers of assets, hedge funds and other institutions acquiring controlling positions in financially distressed companies, and other major stakeholders in chapter 11 reorganization cases and out-of-court restructurings both in the United States and internationally. Mr. Barr has played a leadership role in these matters, frequently as counsel to the company or official and unofficial committees and large debt or equity holders. His engagements have ranged across a wide array of industries, including retail, telecommunication, chemical, pharmaceutical, textile, energy, oil and gas, automotive, apparel, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, project finance and shipping. Mr. Barr has drawn upon his broad experience to develop and advise clients on practical solutions and build the consensus required to implement these solutions.

Mr. Barr has been listed over the years in Chambers Global, Chambers USA, Lawdragon, Legal 500, Guide to World’s Leading Insolvency and Restructuring Lawyers (Legal Media Group), and Super Lawyers, among others, and was recognized as an Outstanding Young Restructuring Lawyer by Turnarounds & Workouts in 2007.

Mr. Barr joined Weil in 2015 from a major international law firm, where he was a partner resident in that firm’s New York office.

Education

New York Law School, J.D.

Boston University, B.A.

Experience

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy

Accreditations

Licensed to practice in New Jersey, New York and before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern & Southern District of New York and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Scott B. Davis

Scott Davis, a partner at Grant Thornton LLP, Charlotte, North Carolina, is with the Corporate Advisory & Restructuring Services group. He has over 30 years of consulting experience in assisting underperforming businesses and in the areas of strategic change, restructuring, litigation and forensics. His consulting experience includes turnaround, workout and restructuring, strategic positioning and alignment, mergers and acquisitions and performance improvement. Scott’s operational and consulting experience includes interim management, developing and implementing strategic business plans, establishing budgeting and forecasting tools, improving cash management and liquidity, financing negotiations, revenue enhancement, cost reduction, identifying and disposing non-core business segments, and negotiating acquisitions and dispositions.

Scott recently served as the Director of Operations and Dispositions on the interim management team at Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, a major New York-based healthcare system that, on April 14, 2012, filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. He currently is handling the planned affiliation of a significant, distressed hospital system with the largest health insurance company in Pennsylvania as a major component of its development of an integrated delivery network in southwestern Pennsylvania. He has also provided forensic and litigation assistance and has served as an expert on a wide variety of matters.

In addition, Scott has spoken on a broad range of topics, including healthcare restructuring, improving business performance, expert witness testimony, financial reporting, and the effect of the economy on various industries, at conferences sponsored by the Healthcare Management Financial Association, Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors, the American Bar Association, the American Bankruptcy Institute, and the American Transportation Association. He has also published a variety of articles focusing on the effects of financial stress on healthcare providers, distressed healthcare restructuring, and avoidance actions.

Education

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, BS and Morehead Scholar

Experience

Grant Thornton LLP

Mesirow Financial Consulting

KPMG

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Accreditations

Certified Insolvency and Restructuring Advisor

Certified Public Accountant, Connecticut and North Carolina

Associations

American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) and ABI Healthcare Committee

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors

Turnaround Management Association

Melissa M. Dimitri

Melissa Dimitri is a senior manager in the Corporate Advisory & Restructuring Services group at Grant Thornton LLP, Chicago. For more than ten years she has provided financial advisory and management consulting services to companies and their stakeholders, lenders, debtors, unsecured creditors’ committees, and other constituencies. Her extensive experience has addressed a broad range of issues relating to liquidity and working capital management; strategic and operational analysis and/or restructuring; financial forecasting and evaluation; contingency planning and crisis management; corporate accounting and valuation; and due diligence and other considerations in connection with mergers, acquisitions, refinancings, and sale transactions, among many others.

Daniel G. Egan

Daniel G. Egan, an associate at DLA Piper, has experience with in-court and out-of-court restructurings of financially distressed companies and has assisted in the representation of corporate debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, debtor-in-possession lenders, trustees, bond insurers and other interested parties in various restructurings.

He also has experience with in-court and out-of-court restructurings of financially distressed municipalities, including those under Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code.

Education

St. John’s University School of Law, J.D.

Ithaca College, B.S.

Experience

DLA Piper

King & Spalding LLP

Associations

American Bankruptcy Institute

American Bar Association

Garry M. Graber

Garry M. Graber, a partner at Hodgson Russ LLP in their New York and Buffalo offices, has more than 30 years of experience in corporate and financial restructuring, creditors' rights, financial services, commercial and corporate litigation and general business law. He represents troubled business entities, their secured and unsecured creditors and their shareholders and principals inside and outside of bankruptcy, as well as creditors' committees, equity committees, trustees, examiners and purchasers in bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings across the United States and in cross-border matters, primarily with Canada. Garry has also handled complex loan workout transactions, lender liability, director and officer liability, bank fraud, UCC and mortgage foreclosures and other litigation.

Garry or one of his colleagues plays a major role in virtually every large Chapter 11 case filed in upstate New York and many filed in the Southern District of New York and Delaware. He has played substantial roles in numerous regional and national cases, including In re Victor Insulators, In re General Motors, In re Daimler Chrysler, In re Lehman Brothers, In re Proliance International, In re Circuit City Stores, In re Fiddlers Green Manor Nursing Home, In re TXP, In re Studio Arena Theatre, In re Holiday Harbor and many other cases.

Garry has lectured extensively on U.S. and cross-border bankruptcy and commercial law topics at numerous state and local bar association programs, Turnaround Management Association and American Bankruptcy Institute programs, law school programs, private seminars and client-training programs. He has also authored several publications, is the recipient of numerous awards and honors and is actively involved with a number of professional associations.

Education

University of Buffalo Law School, State University of New York, J.D.

University of Buffalo, State University of New York, B.A., magna cum laude

Experience

Hodgson Russ LLP

University of Buffalo Law School, adjunct professor, Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Accreditations

Licensed to practice in New York and Florida, all U.S. District and Bankruptcy Courts in all New York districts, and U.S. District and Bankruptcy Courts in the Southern District of Florida

Ira Herman

Ira Herman is a Partner in Blank Rome’s New York office. He regularly advises traditional and non-traditional lenders, indenture trustees and other constituencies regarding restructuring and bankruptcy issues, including distressed M&A transactions and inter-creditor issues. He concentrates his practice on matters involving distressed public debt, upstream and midstream oil and gas companies, distressed M&A, and traditional bankruptcy and insolvency matters. Ira also provides advice concerning the management of counter-party bankruptcy risk and advises management, on the debtor side, concerning corporate governance issues that may arise with respect to a financially distressed business enterprise. As a court appointed mediator, Ira has been able to facilitate the resolution of any number of controversies involving U.S. and non-U.S. parties concerning bankruptcy and commercial law issues. In addition, Ira works with for-profit and nonprofit entities on data protection and cybersecurity.

Neil E. Herman

Neil E. Herman is a partner in the Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring practice at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. For more than 27 years, Neil has represented debtors, financial institutions, trustees, and creditors in out-of-court restructurings and bankruptcy matters. He also has extensive experience representing landlords, real estate developers and shopping center owners in bankruptcy matters, and a substantial portion of his practice involves representing buyers of assets out of bankruptcy.

Neil has lectured on bankruptcy topics at New York Law School, Hofstra Law School and Columbia Business School and has been a panelist on numerous bankruptcy programs and seminars sponsored by the New York Law Journal, the Practicing Law Institute, the American Bar Association, and the International Council of Shopping Centers. Additionally, he has written or co-written numerous articles on bankruptcy and is the author of an extensive chapter on “Retail Bankruptcies” in the most recent Colliers on Bankruptcy treatise.

A member of the Turnaround Management Association, Neil has been recognized each year by New York Super Lawyers and was previously selected by Turnarounds and Workouts as a “Top 40 under 40” practitioner.

Education

Hofstra University, School of Law, J.D.

The Johns Hopkins University, Dean’s List, B.A.

Experience

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

Zalkin, Rodin & Goodman LLP

Accreditations

Licensed to practice in New York

Associations

American Bar Association

New York County Bar Association

State Bar of New York

Gary L. Kaplan

Gary L. Kaplan is a bankruptcy and restructuring partner resident in the New York office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP. His extensive experience includes representing debtors and official and unofficial creditors’ and equity committees in Chapter 11 cases, out-of-court restructurings and foreign proceedings. He also represents significant creditors, lenders and third-party purchasers in connection with Chapter 11 cases, out-of-court restructuring situations and foreign proceedings.

Gary recently represented Contraladora Comercial Mexicana, Mexico’s third-largest supermarket retailer, in its financial restructuring; Highbridge Principal Strategies LLC in connection with its US $150 million debtor-in-possession financing facility to the Los Angeles Dodgers; NewLead Holdings, Ltd., in connection with its efforts to restructure its outstanding indebtedness; and Silver Point Finance LLC in connection with the Chapter 11 case of Workflow Management Inc.

He is consistently recognized by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business as a leading individual in Bankruptcy/Restructuring and by Legal 500 in Finance: Corporate Restructuring. Gary was named an “Outstanding Young Restructuring Lawyer” in 2007 in a special report of Turnarounds and Workouts. A frequent author and speaker on a range of restructuring-related issues , Gary also is a contributing author to Collier on Bankruptcy.

Accreditations

Associations

Paul J. Keenan Jr.

Paul J. Keenan Jr., a shareholder in Greenberg Traurig’s Business Reorganization and Financial Restructuring Practice, focuses his practice on domestic and cross-border corporate restructurings, bankruptcy litigation, sales of distressed assets and loan workouts. He represents clients in bankruptcy courts in Florida and nationwide—corporate debtors, banks and other lending institutions, Chapter 11 trustees, secured and unsecured creditors and asset purchasers in out-of-court corporate restructurings and bankruptcy cases—and has wide-ranging experience before Delaware bankruptcy courts. He also frequently represents purchasers of distressed assets and lenders and borrowers in out-of-court transactions.

Paul speaks Spanish and represents lending institutions and corporate debtors in cross-border corporate restructurings, primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean. Most recently, he was one of the lead restructuring lawyers for Satélites Mexicanos, S.A. de C.V., whose restructuring of $420 million of debt was awarded the “Restructuring Deal of the Year Award” by Latin Lawyer magazine. He’s received additional awards and recognition and has authored or co-authored numerous articles and presented many speeches. He is also an editor and contributing author of University of Miami Law Review.

Mike writes and speaks frequently on finance and letter of credit-related topics, and actively participates in bar associations and trade groups. Additionally, he’s a past Chair of the Subcommittee on Letters of Credit of the New York State Bar Association's Banking Law Committee.

Education

University of Miami School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude

University of Buenos Aires School of Law, foreign student in residence

University of Rhode Island, M.M.A.

Tufts University, B.A.

Experience

Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Baker & McKenzie, Buenos Aires, Argentina, summer associate

Accreditations

Licensed to practice in in Florida and Massachusetts and before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

Associations

American Bar Association, member

Bankruptcy Bar Association, Southern District of Florida

Latin America Committee, INSOL International, chair

Sandra Pak Knox

Sandra Pak Knox is Deputy General Counsel, Corporate, with DataDirect Networks, Inc. (DDN), the world’s largest privately held data storage infrastructure company. As a corporate and securities lawyer, she has more than a decade of experience representing emerging companies in venture capital and private equity financings, mergers and acquisitions, technology transactions and matters of corporate governance.

Before joining DDN in 2012, Sandi was counsel in the Emerging Companies and Venture Capital practice of Sidley Austin LLP and special counsel with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C.

She has spoken frequently on private company financings, including engagements for Northwestern University’s entrepreneurship program, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Clean Energy Trust, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s Entrepreneurs College.

Education

Georgetown University Law Center, J.D.

Stanford University, A.B.

Experience

DataDirect Networks, Inc.

Sidley Austin LLP

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C.

Accreditations

Licensed to practice law in California

Associations

Member, State Bar of California

Richard Levin

Richard Levin joined Jenner & Block LLP in 2015. He is a partner in the firm’s Bankruptcy, Workout and Corporate Reorganization practice, focusing his practice on creditors’ rights, insolvency, reorganization, and bankruptcy.

He has negotiated and structured complex domestic and international transactions involving distressed or insolvent companies and guided corporate debtors, creditors, and acquirers through Chapter 11 and out-of-court restructurings in negotiated resolutions and in litigation.

Richard has been repeatedly cited as one of the country’s leading practitioners of bankruptcy and creditor-debtor rights law. He has been recognized by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, The Legal 500, The Best Lawyers in America, The International Who’s Who of Insolvency & Restructuring Lawyers, the Guide to the World’s Leading Insolvency and Restructuring Lawyers, Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America, Benchmark Litigation, and the K&A Restructuring Register America’s Top 100.

Education

Yale Law School, J.D.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, S.B.

Experience

Jenner & Block LLP

Counsel to a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee

A primary author of the 1978 Bankruptcy Code

Faculty, Bankruptcy Judge Workshops, Federal Judicial Center

Accreditations

Licensed to practice in New York, California, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia

Associations

American Bankruptcy Institute

American College of Bankruptcy

National Bankruptcy Conference

Craig T. Lutterbein

Craig T. Lutterbein is an associate in the Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Commercial Litigation practice group in the Buffalo office of Hodgson Russ LLP, focusing his practice in bankruptcy, creditors’ rights and commercial litigation. Craig authored the note “Fraud and Deceit Abound But Do the Bankruptcy Courts Really Believe Everyone Is Crooked: The Bayou Decision and the Narrowing of Good Faith,” 18 Am. Bankr. Inst. L. Rev. 405 (2010). At St. John’s University School of Law, Craig was named the Robert M. Zimmerman Bankruptcy Scholar for L.L.M. in Bankruptcy for the 2010-11 academic year.

Education

St. John’s University School of Law, L.L.M. in bankruptcy (expected Spring 2012)

St. John’s University School of Law, J.D., Dean’s List

American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review, associate managing editor

Vassar College, B.A.

Experience

Hodgson Russ LLP

Hon. Burton R. Lifland of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York

Accreditations

Licensed to practice in New York

Associations

American Bankruptcy Institute

Morris J. Massel

Morris J. Massel, counsel at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, is a member of the Bankruptcy department. Morris regularly represents clients in connection with out-of-court restructurings and Chapter 11 cases across a wide range of sectors, including semi-conductors, telecommunications, manufacturing and consumer products. His work focuses primarily on advising distressed companies and financial institutions in connection with their loans to troubled companies. He also represents acquirers of financially distressed companies in Chapter 11 cases and provides advice regarding the structuring of corporate transactions.

Morris has acted as counsel to private and public companies in complex Chapter 11 cases and out-of-court restructurings. He regularly represents administrative agents for secured lending syndicates in connection with in-court and out-of-court restructurings. Additionally, he advises strategic buyers in distressed asset sales.

Education

New York University School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude

Order of the Coif; Environmental Law Journal

University of Pennsylvania, B.A.

Experience

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, LLP

Accreditations

Licensed to practice in New York

Paul I. Melville

Paul Melville is a principal in the Corporate Advisory & Restructuring Services group at Grant Thornton LLP, Chicago. With over 18 years of experience in all areas of corporate restructuring, including several cross-border restructuring situations, he has advised stakeholders, including bank groups, customers, suppliers and shareholders in various restructuring scenarios encompassing company viability, reconstructions and debt restructuring, strategic options and formal insolvency.

Paul’s experience is international in its foundation. He was admitted to partnership in Grant Thornton UK, where he was a partner in the corporate recovery and restructuring group. In recognition of his cross-border and international capabilities, particularly in the manufacturing and automotive industries, Paul assisted in the development of the international capability of the United States-based restructuring practice, first in the Detroit office over a three-year period. He now resides in the Chicago office, where he serves as the liaison between the 1,000-professional Recovery & Re-organization practice of Grant Thornton International and that of the United States organization.

With his significant and diverse experience with international matters, Paul has worked with companies, their investors and their lenders in restructuring, purchase and sale of companies headquartered in or with operations in Canada, China, India, and the United Kingdom as well as other regions and countries. He has addressed complex issues and matters, including those associated with regulatory requirements and the application of bankruptcy laws in a variety of countries. Recently he presented to an international bank on the topic of the comparison of bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada.

Nancy A. Mitchell

Nancy A. Mitchell is an operating shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, LLP and chairs the New York Business Reorganization & Financial Restructuring practice. She has more than 20 years of experience in restructuring and corporate finance as both an attorney and an investment banker, and her areas of concentration include business restructuring, creditor rights representation, debtor rights representation and finance.

Nancy is a frequent author and speaker on various restructuring topics and has received numerous awards and recognition. Most recently, she was one of the lead restructuring lawyers for Satélites Mexicanos, S.A. de C.V., whose restructuring of $420 million of debt was awarded the “Restructuring Deal of the Year Award” by Latin Lawyer magazine. She has also been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA Guide, Super Lawyers magazine, and Leading Lawyers Network.

Education

University of Michigan Law School, J.D., cum laude

The Michigan Law Review, contributing editor

Indiana University, Bloomington, B.A.

Experience

Greenberg Traurig, LLP

CIBC World Market Corp., executive director

Accreditations

Licensed to practice in New York and Illinois

Associations

American Bar Association

Trey A. Monsour

Trey Monsour is a partner in the Restructuring and Bankruptcy Practice Group for K&L Gates LLP and manages their restructuring practice throughout the Southwest region of the United States. With offices both in Houston and Dallas, Texas, Trey specializes in workouts, restructuring troubled businesses and commercial bankruptcy cases both for debtors and creditor constituencies.

With a business background, Trey has been actively involved in cases in the retail, restaurant, supplier, manufacturing, construction and energy sectors. He also has been actively involved as counsel for debtors, lenders, purchasers, large unsecured creditors and dozens of creditor committees. Trey is national restructuring counsel for a Global Fortune 500 Corporation. In addition, Trey regularly serves as a court appointed Mediator for bankruptcy disputes.

His additional experience includes serving two consecutive years as course director of the State Bar of Texas Advance Business Bankruptcy Course, and speaking on bankruptcy issues to law schools, bar associations, trade and specialty group associations. Trey is a contributing author to Inside the Minds: Creditor Rights in Chapter 11 Cases (Aspatore 2010). From 2005 to 2013, he has been selected as a “Super Lawyer” by Texas Monthly magazine.

David W. Morse

David Morse is a member of the law firm of Otterbourg P.C. in New York City and is chair of the firm’s banking and finance practice.

Since joining the firm he has specialized in the representation of banks, hedge funds, commercial finance companies and other institutional lenders in structuring and documenting loan transactions, including working capital facilities, financings for leveraged acquisitions, term loans, and second lien loans, as well as loan workouts and restructurings. In the course of his career, Mr. Morse has worked on numerous financing transactions confronting a wide range of legal issues raised by Federal, State and international law.

He has given presentations as part of programs sponsored by The Practising Law Institute, the American Bar Association, the Loan Syndication and Trading Association, lectured to the Association of Commercial Finance Attorneys and the New York Chapter of the Commercial Finance Association and has been an instructor in the Commercial Finance Association’s Advanced Legal Issues Workshop and Loan Documentation Workshop.

Mr. Morse has been selected for Super Lawyers since 2008 and Best Lawyers in 2013 and 2014. He is the winner of the 2008 Harry H. Chen Memorial Award of Excellence presented by the Commercial Finance Association. He is a representative from the Commercial Finance Association in its participation in one of the current projects of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) concerning secured transactions law.

Peter Newman

Peter Newman is a partner in the London office of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and a member of the firm’s Financial Restructuring Group. Prior to moving to London, Peter practiced in the New York office since 2004.

Peter’s experience includes representing debtors, official and ad hoc committees of creditors, large debt or equity holders and prospective investors in connection with court-supervised and out-of-court restructurings in the United States, Europe and other foreign countries. He has represented acquirers and sellers of assets of insolvent and financially distressed companies, negotiated financing arrangements, sale agreements, reorganization plans, schemes of arrangement and related documents in a wide range of industries such as energy, pharmaceuticals, shipbuilding and docks, financial services, satellite, airline, automotive, printing, broadcasting, cable, hospitality, manufacturing and project finance.

His extensive representative engagements include ad hoc noteholder groups, official committees of unsecured creditors and Chapter 11 debtors. He has also represented parties in interest in the restructurings as counsel to lenders, subcommittees of noteholders, ad hoc committees of secured noteholders, second lien lenders, administrative agents of secured lending facility and corporate parents. Peter was recently named as one of 12 Outstanding Young Restructuring Lawyers by Turnarounds & Workouts.

Education

New York University School of Law, J.D.

University of Maryland, B.A.

Experience

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy

Accreditations

Licensed to practice in New York

Kalman Ochs

Kalman Ochs, a bankruptcy and restructuring special counsel resident in the New York office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, is involved in numerous in-court and out-of-court restructurings and the rehabilitation of financially distressed businesses. He has experience representing Chapter 11 debtors, creditors' committees, significant individual creditors, lenders and parties seeking to invest in and/or acquire the assets of financially troubled companies.

Kalman has served as Secretary of the Committee on Local Rules of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York and has co-authored several articles on bankruptcy-related topics.

Education

Rutgers University School of Law, J.D.

Kotler Institute of Higher Learning, M.A.

Kotler Institute of Higher Learning, B.A.

Experience

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP

Accreditations

Licensed to practice in New York and New Jersey and admitted in the Southern and Eastern districts of New York

Ilan D. Scharf

Ilan Scharf is a partner in the New York office of Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP. Ilan specializes in financial restructuring and bankruptcy. His practice focuses on the representation of debtors and committees in complex Chapter 11 cases, and he also has extensive experience representing equity holders, asset purchasers, trade creditors and Chapter 11 trustees. Mr. Scharf has extensive experience representing parties in many industries, including art, jewelry, manufacturing, equipment rental, publishing and transportation. He has appeared before bankruptcy courts in New York, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Education

University of Pennsylvania, J.D.

Yeshiva University

Experience

University of Pennsylvania, J.D.

Yeshiva University

Accreditations

Licensed to practice in New York and before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York

Jason Watson

Jason Watson is a partner at the Atlanta office of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, LLP. He represents secured lenders and special servicers in large scale bankruptcy matters, including pre-bankruptcy workouts, Chapter 11 cases and litigation. He also regularly advises a range of clients – including food franchisors, real estate industry entities, and manufacturing and telecommunications companies – in bankruptcy acquisitions. He is a frequent lecturer on a variety of bankruptcy topics.

Jason is licensed to practice in Georgia and New York. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute and is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. Jason is listed in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and in The Best Lawyers in America.

Steven W. Wells

Steven W. Wells is a senior associate in the Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Commercial Litigation practice group in the Buffalo office of Hodgson Russ LLP. He focuses his practice in bankruptcy, creditors' rights, and commercial litigation. Steven represents financially troubled companies as well as secured and unsecured creditors, both inside and outside of bankruptcy. He has represented a wide range of clients, including private financial organizations, financial institutions, banks, lessors and lessees of equipment and real estate, health care facilities, agricultural lenders and bankruptcy trustees. Steven has also handled various commercial litigation matters relating to breach of contract, business torts, construction/building and intellectual property.

Education

University at Buffalo Law School, State University of New York, J.D., cum laude

Buffalo Law Review, publications editor

Ithaca College, B.A.

Experience

Hodgson Russ LLP

Accreditations

Licensed to practice in New York and before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of New York

Associations

New York State Bar Association

Bar Association of Erie County

Kristin C. Wigness

Kristin C. Wigness, First Vice President and Associate General Counsel at Israel Discount Bank of New York, concentrates on secured and unsecured lending transactions, debt restructurings, loan workouts, debtor-in-possession financing, creditors’ rights and insolvency. Prior to joining IDB, Kristin was a partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP in New York.

At IDB, Kristin oversees all lending-related matters for the bank, including loan originations and workouts. Prior to joining IDB, Kristin represented numerous agents and lenders in loan originations, loan workouts and debtor-in-possession financings, including in the Chapter 11 cases of United Airlines, Tower Automotive, American Commercial Lines, Mariner Post- Acute Network, Polaroid Corporation, Burlington Industries, Guilford Mills and Sea Island Company. He also represented various sellers and buyers of assets through bankruptcy, debtors, licensors and creditors, and assisted mortgage lenders in connection with sales of mortgage pools and in restructuring financing transactions of mortgage portfolios.

Kristin is a frequent speaker at seminars and universities.

Education

Rutgers University School of Law, J.D.

University of Michigan, M.M.

State University of New York at Purchase, B.F.A.

Experience

Israel Discount Bank of New York

Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

Zalkin, Rodin & Goodman LLP

Accreditations

Licensed to practice in New York and New Jersey

Associations

New York State Bar Association

American Bankruptcy Institute

Steven Wilamowsky

Steve Wilamowsky is a partner in Chapman and Cutler’s Bankruptcy and Restructuring Group. He regularly represents investors, creditors, and lenders in complex restructurings, in and out of bankruptcy court.

Steve has extensive experience representing clients in bankruptcy litigation matters, at both the plenary and appellate levels, and in connection with the restructuring of distressed development projects, in both domestic and cross-border proceedings. He also represents investors and buyers of distressed assets through chapter 11 sales.

Prior to joining Chapman in 2015, Steve was a partner at Bingham McCutchen, where, among other things, he represented the estates in the Refco chapter 11 cases, a major swap counterparty in the City of Detroit’s chapter 9 case, several trust creditors in the Madoff SIPA proceedings, insider and non-insider defendants in a series of actions alleging eight-figure fraudulent transfer claims, and large institutional lenders, loan purchasers, and servicers in a number of mortgage originator cases. The author is grateful to Christopher Carter, an associate at Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP for his assistance in the preparation of these materials.

Eric frequently speaks at panels and conferences around the country and has been a guest lecturer at Loyola and University of Southern California law schools. He has been a member of the State Bar of California Insolvency Law Committee and is the co-author of two law review articles, "State Defiance of Bankruptcy Law," 52 Vand. L. Rev. 1527 (2000), and "Sizing Up The 'Cap' - Commercial Lease Rejection Claims In Bankruptcy," 27 Cal. Bankr. J. 209 (2004). Eric co-wrote the “Vale-Oriented Discovery” chapter in the 2011 book Contested Valuation in Corporate Bankruptcy.

Eric was recently recognized by Turnarounds & Workouts as one of the nation’s 12 “Outstanding Young Restructuring Lawyers” for 2012. Turnarounds & Workouts praised Eric for his involvement in Quinn Emanuel’s representation of Hildene Capital in the Zais Investment Grade Limited VII case—the first-ever bankruptcy filing involving a CDO entity. He was also touted for his roles in SK Foods, SemGroup, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, and Trident Microsystems. This is the second time Turnarounds & Workouts has recognized Eric. He previously was honored as one of the twelve outstanding young restructuring lawyers in 2005.

Eric would like to thank Matthew Scheck, an associate with Quinn Emanuel, for his valuable assistance in the preparation of these materials.

Education

University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, J.D.

UCLA Journal of Environmental Law & Policy, managing editor

University of California, Berkeley, B.A., high honors

Experience

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP

U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division

Accreditations

Licensed to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals: Second Circuit, Third Circuit, Fifth Circuit, Ninth Circuit, Tenth Circuit; the U.S. District Court: Central District of California, Eastern District of California, Northern District of California and Southern District of California.

Paul H. Zumbro

Paul H. Zumbro joined Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in 1997 and became a partner in 2005. As a partner in the firm’s Corporate Department, Paul’s practice focuses principally on leveraged finance transactions and on representing secured creditors with complex in-court and out-of-court restructurings.

Paul has extensive experience in leveraged finance, having represented the arranger banks in several multi-billion dollar LBO financings, including for Freescale Semiconductor, Neiman Marcus and Warner Chilcott. This experience is complemented by Paul’s significant experience in all phases of capital-raising and balance-sheet restructurings, including out-of-court debt exchanges and debtor-in-possession financings. Additionally, he has represented buyers in distressed mergers and acquisitions transactions, including both regular-way Bankruptcy Code Section 363 sales and “credit bid” transactions.

Paul has authored several chapters and articles regarding bankruptcy and financial restructuring for publications such as Practical Law Company, Inside the Minds™, Law360, IBA’s Business Law International and the book Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring Law 2011: Top Lawyers on Trends and Key Strategies for the Upcoming Year (Aspatore Thought Leadership), and was recognized by The Legal 500 for his skill in corporate restructuring in 2010 and 2011 and bank lending in 2009.

The author would like to thank Rob Trust of Linklaters for his invaluable contribution to this effort.

Education

Yale College, B.A. cum laude, Distinction in Major

Columbia Law School, J.D., Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar

Experience

Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP

Accreditations

Licensed to practice in New York

Associations

New York State Bar Association

American Bankruptcy Institute

International Bar Association

Reorganization and Workout Sub-Committee of IBA’s Section on Insolvency, Restructuring and Creditors’ Rights